As a result of the rapid technological growth of the past several decades, transistors and other semiconductor devices have become a fundamental building block for a wide range electronic components. Metal-oxide silicon field-effect transistors (MOSFET) have been the primary choice for transistors in many applications including general-use microprocessors, digital signal processors, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and various other forms of electronic devices. With the demand for electronic devices that are increasingly smaller and faster, the inclusion of the metal oxide layer from which MOSFETs derive their name creates significant limitations to further improvements in the size and operating speed of such devices.
As a result, the focus of industry development has begun to shift to junction field effect transistors (JFETs) and other types of semiconductor devices. Nonetheless, because these types of semiconductor devices have received far less attention over the past several years, development and design of these devices lags behind that of MOSFETs. Improvements must be made to the operating characteristics of JFETs for these devices to server as realistic alternatives to MOSFET devices.